My Books & More

Blogged under Crafty Videos by Tammy on Sunday 31 August 2008 at 3:13 pm

Sherri Haab has a new DVD out about making resin jewelry, called…of course…”Resin Jewelry.” I actually have this DVD and have watched it once already. I plan to watch it again before I write up my review of it, but for those who would like a sneak peak, you can catch a look-see over at YouTube.com or here it is for you as well.

The jury is still out on my experience running my first sale at the Crafty Princess Etsy Shop since I set it up for the month of August and we still have a few more days left in the month, but so far, I hesitate to say it has been an overwhelming success. I have made sales this month, six sales actually, so that is something. However, who is to say I wouldn’t have made these sales any way without running my shipping for a buck sale? From what I’ve read on the Etsy forums, most Etsians claim that sales are never worth it. However, I sure see a lot of other Etsy shops running sales, so I figured why not give it a try.

I listed my very first item for sale in my shop (some stone beads) on June 15, 2008. More than two months later, I’m still learning the ropes and trying to figure out what will sell, how much to charge, how much to cover shipping/handling, so as I suspected, it really is a continuing learning process. Because I don’t have time to dedicate a lot of energy to it, I’m probably learning at a much slower pace than if I was actively listing daily, being more involved in the Etsy world, and generally spending time promoting my store, but I’m okay with that. I am learning, and I am selling items now and then. Both are good things.

Therefore, I’m still a fan of Etsy, as both a seller and buyer. Just be aware that if you decide to dip your own toe into the Etsy sales pool, it really isn’t that different than any other type of selling venue: it takes time, work, and patience.

Blogged under Around the Web by Tammy on Friday 29 August 2008 at 6:30 am

Welcome to the holiday weekend for those who live in the States. Though we are celebrating Labor Day, I know a lot of other crafters like myself plan to use this weekend to work, but work on crafts, which isn’t always like work though you feel like you have really accomplished something. I’ve started my mental to-do list. What about you? If you are thinking of getting a little creative this weekend with your own to-do crafts, here are some bloggers with a few ideas for you.

Aileen’s Musings
Check out Aileen’s Mail Art from the heart tutorial and send your own surprise in the mail!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Ho-ho, uh, ho? Yes, the holiday’s have hit at Craftside with free downloads of templates and pattern paper for a dimensional ornament card, a how-to for sculpting a squirrel and acorns, and a beaded flower. There are pictures from The Modern Mark Making Release Party and a fun little survey that gets you entered to win any craft book you like from The Quayside Publishing Group. Let those opinions fly!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Stop the social networking insanity! Tammy gives you some tips on how to use them but not have them abuse your precious time.

Layers Upon Layers
Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich is an assemblage and jewelry artist of extraordinary talent…with an extraordinary story to tell!

The Impatient Blogger
Sometimes it’s about what we craft with our hands and sometimes it’s about what we craft with our hearts. Margot talks about why our life is our most profound creation and why she’s focused on crafting hope.

I thought this was a clever idea, and who doesn’t enjoy free jewelry projects? BeadStyle magazine has a newsletter they regularly send out. Now, they’ve added a special edition that will include a free earring project to go with a project in an issue of the hardcopy magazine.

The earring pictured just came out in a newsletter I received yesterday. They were designed by Katie Wall to go with a similar looking bracelet where she framed crystal beads with round metal components and strung them together to form the bracelet. If you signed up for their newsletter, look for the earring freebie projects every fourth Wednesday of the month.

Blogged under Crafty Biz by Tammy on Tuesday 26 August 2008 at 6:28 pm

Crafty Princess Business Card

One of the cheapest forms of advertising has long been the simple business card, and I think that’s still true. Though you can head to your nearest office supply store and pick some up, there are also a lot of companies that offer printing services on-line. A few years ago, I used Vista, and found their service was okay. I think I got some kind of deal where you could get free cards but pay for shipping, so okay, not exactly free. I almost tried them again, but honestly, over at the Etsy forums I read some horror stories about that company that I decided to try someone else, who I also learned about from those same forums, GotPrint.net, and I got my cards today.

Pictured is from the on-line tool you use to design your card. It allows you to upload your own images, pick fonts, size everything, select colors, all you want to do to create your card. You can also have a double sided card as well, but I opted for a calendar on the other side. I didn’t want mine to be too busy. For 250 cards including shipping, it cost me about $20. The shipping charges were almost as much as the actual cards, so keep that in mind when you are shopping around for on-line print options. I almost didn’t purchase these because of that, but considering the cost of gas these days and my time, I felt it was worth it for me.

I tried scanning in a card to show, but the DPI just wasn’t high enough to show what the cards actually looked like. Generally, they are very close to what I saw in the tool. Overall, I am happy with my purchase. I found the tool pretty easy to use, and I really like the fact that I could use my own image, so my card is very personalized. Now it’s time to pass these puppies out!

If you are still hooming and hawing about joining Twitter, it could be because you just don’t “get” what it’s all about. I know, for me, even though more than one craft blogger was talking about it and urging me to join, I hesitated because I felt overwhelmed with all these social networks going on. But, it has turned out to be my favorite out of all of them, probably because it is super easy and very quick.

If you are still on the Twitter fence because you basically don’t understand what it’s all about, then this page from the Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (yes, an unlikely source, I know, but not affiliated with Twitter, just a fan) may be helpful. I think he does an excellent job explaining what it’s all about in his “Quick Start Guide.”

The topic of copyrights and craft writing came up recently between myself and some fellow crafters, and I thought this was a good item to include in my Getting Craft Work Published series because it is a really important topic for crafters and and writers.

As I mentioned in another blog post about how to submit to magazines, there are a boat-load of magazines out there these days for craft designers to submit work to. While this may not appeal to everyone, magazines can be a really good way build a reputation for yourself in your chosen craft field as well as promote other work such as a book or product you have which you hope to sell. I’m sure you’ve seen this done before where a magazine will have a project and it is either from a book or it is from a kit which you can purchase from the author of the project. But, even if you don’t have a book or gizmo to push, by publishing in magazines you can get your name out there and recognized so that other opportunities (like books and gizmos) may eventually come your way.

When you do get work accepted for magazine publication, you’ll receive a contract to sign and return to the publisher. Among other stipulations in the contract, you will be required to agree to a certain type of copyright. Now, let me put in a disclaimer here: I am not a copyright expert by any means, but here is what I know. Ideally, most writers prefer to give North American rights, which basically means the writer allows the publisher the rights to first printing of the work, but the writer owns the work and can republish it at a later date. However, I have rarely seen this offered, especially in the craft publication world. Instead, they often ask for all rights, both hardcopy and on-line, which again “basically” means they can reprint it anywhere, anytime, for any reason, and not have to provide any compensation to the writer. If they want to publish a book and include your project and not even give you a copy of the book, they can. If they want to slap it on a t-shirt and sell it at the mall to a million people and not even give you a t-shirt, they can. And, very often, publishers will reuse your work, so it is best to just assume they will if you do agree to this.

Now, when they do buy the rights to your project, unless it states otherwise in the contract (they all can be very different depending on the publisher) they are purchasing your words and images, not the actual jewelry design. So if you created some super fabulous bracelet design, they do not have the right to make a zillion of them and sell them on QVC.

Whether or not giving up all these rights to your ideas is worth it or not is really a personal decision. I wrote for a number of different magazines for years, and it worked for me back then because I was building a reputation for myself as I got to know publishers and editors in my industry. (All of whom I found on a personal level to be very nice people by the way). It also helped me get into the book writing business. Now, my circumstances are very different. Writing a how-to article for $75 (the low end of the pay scale for most magazines) and giving up all rights to my work forever is not as appealing to me. I’m not saying I will never submit to magazines again, but it is not something I plan to do in the near future because it doesn’t provide me with anything but a $75 check, which I feel is not enough compensation for what I’m giving up.

As I end this post, I just want to clarify that I’m not poo-pooing craft magazines. They have to make money, and it is a very tough market for all of them these days. Magazine submissions can be a good way to earn a little cash and kudos as you form a craft career, but at some point, many of us come to a realization that it just may no longer fit our needs.

Blogged under Around the Web by Tammy on Saturday 23 August 2008 at 9:52 am

I was MIA yesterday - sorry! It was one hectic day. All the meetings that had been canceled over the week at school due to Fay were rescheduled for Friday. We still had some rain here, which sucked because (a) I’m over it and (b) I ended up running across campus with my umbrella in high heels (okay 1 inch heels but for me that’s high!) and still getting soaked. My poor beautiful shoes! I’m so seriously out of shape. It’s not even funny. One of my goals this weekend is to get back into the exercise routine, pathetically lame though it is, and if we can see some sun, I want to fire up some of my metal clay charms. They are beyond dry by now since I made them last week!

Enough of my complaining, though, how about some good blogosphere crafting?About Family Crafts
Did you know that September 7th is National Grandparents Day? Discover fun gifts you can start making today.

Aileen’s Musings
Meet Snaily the skateboarding snail, and check out the fairies in Aileen’s gardens! Aileen has created free postcards for you to send to a friend!

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
The glitter, fabric, fire and pens are flying this week at Craftside with cool lettering tutorials from Lisa Engelbrecht, lampwork beaded earrings, Modern quilt designs and patterns, knitting with fleece fabric and pictures of the Crafty Chica’s Sparkle tour.

Tropical Storm Fay is making her way out of here, finally, though as I type this, I can hear the tapping of rain against my window pane! But, these last feeder bands are slowing and surely making their way out of South Florida.

I managed to leave the house today after being land-locked for two days. At least in my area, most of the flooded roads have gone down. I can’t, unfortunately, say this for all of the state.

However, as the sun started to peek out now and then today, I couldn’t help but notice how green everything is around me. Not that it isn’t usually green in Florida, which is one of the things I love about living here, but this is more of a bright, newly washed green, extra bright even because of the clouds that have been overhead for so long. It’s like the trees and grass are saying, “Ah, burp, thanks for the big glass of water!”

With a little bad often comes a little good, and that’s what I remembered today driving around. The ditches and retention ponds are full to the brim, but we needed the water so badly! Fay did some damaged, but she also did us a favor as well. And, my train of thought as I drove down I95 today enjoying the green and little sunlight brought me to one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems, which I hope you enjoy as well:

I dwell in Possibility–
A fairer House than Prose–
More numerous of Windows–
Superior–for Doors–

Of Chambers as the Cedars–
Impregnable of Eye–
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky–

For the most part, we are almost done with Fay in my neck of the woods, but as you can see from the radar picture above (compliments of the Weather Channel), she is not done with Florida yet. We’ve gotten over 10 inches of rain at our house, and though there is no standing water in our yard or the street outside, from what I’m hearing other areas are flooded out. The college is closed until noon today, so I’m vacillating about going in. I can do a good chunk of work from home, so I don’t really need to go in today, but then again, I’m sure there is no line at the copy center so I could get a lot of handouts copied in time for school next week. Hmmmmm…..

I thought I’d manage to get some crafting done yesterday, but somehow the day sort of got away from me in between checking the weather and local news every five minutes! I have some metal clay stars dried now and ready for firing, but it is still drizzling outside (been raining for over 24 hours now), so I’m not too keen on setting my little hot pot out there just yet.

At this point, it looks like those north of me in Florida will now be getting lots of Fay coming their way. This really hasn’t been a bad storm, but it’s just been slow and never ending! I’m so over the rain and the wind I can’t even explain it!